


Bernadette

by Beautiful_Doom



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Backstory, Concentration Camps, Hallucinations, Songfic, Torture, crazy stalkers, minor forced drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beautiful_Doom/pseuds/Beautiful_Doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From my SFC verse. A side story that tells of the woman who was the cause of all of RED Medic's suffering. Songfic to "Bernadette" by IAMX</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bernadette

He never really thought about it. Hell, he didn't like thinking about it. But there were nights when he was alone in his infirmary and he would roll up his sleep and stare at that pink triangle on his wrist.

He would think of her.

The one who betrayed him all those years ago.

~O~

They were both so young. They had such promising futures ahead of them. He had already obtained his license, but she was still learning. She was the student and he was the teacher.

That was so long ago. Right after he had graduated from medical school. That was when he had volunteered as a tutor and had met her.

Her name was Bernadette.

She was so pretty with her long blonde hair and her emerald green eyes. Her skin was so soft and pale and her lips had a natural red that shamed roses.

But Medic was not interested in her like that. In fact, he was not interested in women at all.

But she didn't know that.

They studied together diligently. Bernadette wanted to become a nurse so bad. He encouraged her every step of the way even when they were stuck in the library with little light and lots of coffee.

_You and me in a playhouse_

_Living in a veil_

_We never need to go without_

Bernadette cut off contact with her family when they expressed disappointment in her dream, but Medic was there for her to give her a shoulder to cry on. Her friends all left her when she skipped their parties to study, but Medic was there for her when she felt lonely. Her world grew dark and dreary as the medical texts became her new friends and family, but Medic was there to keep her smiling.

_Memories bring no joy or peace_

_We are alone and all we need_

But then the war came. 

The Nazi party rose to power under the careful eye of Adolf Hitler and everything went to hell. Bernadette was terrified of the men who stood on the corners with guns and eyes full of hate. The men who rounded up people who were deemed "different" in their eyes. The men who spat and cursed at anyone who so much as looked at them wrong.

_Tuning out of their poison_

_Every waking day_

_Intolerance to overcome_

Then the armies went out to conquer and a heavy fence shut around Germany, cutting off any communication Bernadette hoped to have with her family.

_Fortunes won by the boys with their guns_

_We are alone, nowhere to run_

That was when Bernadette kissed him and told him that she loved him. That was when Medic blushed and apologized and said that he didn't return her feelings.

She was so angry.

She yelled and screamed and hit him over and over. She demanded to know why. Why didn't he love her? Was she not pretty enough? Was she not smart enough? What was wrong with her that he didn't love her back?

She stopped tutoring with him.

But she didn't stop seeing him.

She stalked him ruthlessly, trailing him more than his own shadow. She was determined to find out just why he didn't love her when so many found him irresistible. Her studies suffered, but she no longer cared. She became violent and angry and hurt others in an effort to quell the pain in her heart. She killed little pets and scarred little children.

She had become a monster who was obsessed with Medic.

Finally, Bernadette caught her break as she happened upon Medic entering someone's house. A quick climb up the nearby tree and a small gap in the upstairs curtains allowed her to see into the house. There was Medic and there was another man. Medic was smiling. He seemed so happy. The man was smiling too. They leaned in close.

Oh, they kissed?!

Bernadette nearly fell out of the tree as her brain processed this information. So that was it? Medic was gay?

Bernadette jumped from the tree and ran a short distance before vomiting into some bushes. That sick filthy man had been around her. He had touched her. Worse, she had fallen in love with him. Bernadette vomited again, alerting a few nearby men. She looked up and saw swastikas on their sleeves.

Then she suddenly got an idea.

Medic was shocked when they stormed his lover's home. They pulled him and his lover apart and drug them away. Medic was packed into a train with others and then taken away. When the train stopped, Medic looked out from a hole in the wall and saw where they were. He crossed himself and said a short prayer, asking to survive this.

_Bernadette, you are my liberty_

_I celebrate the day_

_That you changed my history_

_Of life and death_

_We'll always lead you into love and regret_

_But you have answers and I have the key_

_For the door to Bernadette_

For three long years Medic was subjected to it all: the hard labor, the freezing cold, the sickness, the starvation, the pain, the despair, the hopelessness. He became a shell of his former self. The light in his blue eyes had gone out and was replaced with a blank zombie look. He almost became a robot in his duties, locking away all the pain and sorrow in his heart as he mechanically did whatever they told him to do.

_Winding down your emotions_

_Family and friends_

_Becoming ghosts to dream of and pass on_

_Time will erase every face every name_

_We are alone_

_No one to blame_

Then one day they drug him into a building and restrained him in a room. There was a window on one wall and a bare bulb that hung from the ceiling. Medic slowly looked up at the window...then his eyes grew wide.

It was her!

She looked only slightly different. Her innocence was gone, her purity was gone, and a dark shadow haunted her eyes. The beautiful woman who had such hopes had been replaced by this demon.

It had been her! She had been the one to betray him.

She smirked at him with malevolence and said something to the other scientists around her. Then a man came in and injected Medic with some kind of drug, his struggles made Bernadette laughed. The man untied Medic and tossed him across the room before leaving.

This is where the memory gets hazy for Medic. The drug caused him to hallucinate, seeing horrors that no man should see. He saw his mother's shredded and violated corpse crying out for him to help her. He saw his friends in various stages of torture and decay. His little Schnauzer that he had left with his mother now had intestines hanging from his mouth.

Medic had no perception of time anymore. He had no perception of life or death. He had no perception of anything except pain.

But then…it came.

It was a beautiful golden butterfly that had sun light shining from its wings. Medic stared at it in awe and followed it around the dark void he found himself in. The butterfly lit the void and revealed a plain room with a window. But there was also a few corpses in the room with him. Strange men with strange symbols that seemed almost familiar on their sleeves. They were all dead, but he couldn't figure out why. The butterfly illuminated the window and Medic saw a beautiful woman yelling angrily at some people. She was pointing at him and yelling so much, but everyone was shaking their heads. Why were they shaking their heads?

Then the woman disappeared and came through the door. She held a knife in her hand and a wicked smile on her face. The butterfly flew over her and she raised her hand that held the knife.

Oh!

She hit it!

She hit the butterfly!

How dare she?!

How dare she hurt something so good?

Enraged, Medic grabbed her hand and wrenched the knife out. The rest of the room began to fade into a dark void again as the butterfly shone brightly above the two people. The woman looked scared now.

So scared.

She hesitantly leaned forward and pressed her lips against Medic's.

Poison!

She tasted like poison!

She was deadly!

Medic pushed her down and bared his teeth in a snarl. Again, his memory was hazy, but he remembered so much blood and screaming.

But the butterfly was still there.

The light had stayed with him.

~O~

Medic sighed as he rolled his sleeve back down. His next memory was of the camp being liberated, but who knew how much time had passed between that and the butterfly?

Between that and Bernadette's death at his hands?

He had come so far from all of that. He had conquered his pain and his fear and he had returned to a somewhat normal state, even if he was currently serving as a mercenary in a pointless war. He had come a long way from those drug filled veins of his. From the hallucinations.

But sometimes…

Out of the corner of his eye…

He saw a golden shimmer…

From two small flapping wings…

_Bernadette, you are my liberty_

_I celebrate the day_

_that you changed my history_

_Of life and death_

_We'll always lead you into love and regret_

_But you have answers and I have the key_

_To Bernadette_


End file.
